diff --git a/Example/example.ts b/Example/example.ts
index 8e8aeb1..bbbcecc 100644
--- a/Example/example.ts
+++ b/Example/example.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { Boom } from '@hapi/boom'
-import makeWASocket, { AnyMessageContent, delay, DisconnectReason, fetchLatestBaileysVersion, makeInMemoryStore, useSingleFileAuthState } from '../src'
+import makeWASocket, { AnyMessageContent, delay, DisconnectReason, fetchLatestBaileysVersion, makeInMemoryStore, MessageRetryMap, useSingleFileAuthState } from '../src'
 import MAIN_LOGGER from '../src/Utils/logger'
 
 const logger = MAIN_LOGGER.child({ })
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ logger.level = 'trace'
 const useStore = !process.argv.includes('--no-store')
 const doReplies = !process.argv.includes('--no-reply')
 
+// external map to store retry counts of messages when decryption/encryption fails
+// keep this out of the socket itself, so as to prevent a message decryption/encryption loop across socket restarts
+const msgRetryCounterMap: MessageRetryMap = { }
+
 // the store maintains the data of the WA connection in memory
 // can be written out to a file & read from it
 const store = useStore ? makeInMemoryStore({ logger }) : undefined
@@ -30,6 +34,7 @@ const startSock = async() => {
 		logger,
 		printQRInTerminal: true,
 		auth: state,
+		msgRetryCounterMap,
 		// implement to handle retries
 		getMessage: async key => {
 			return {
diff --git a/src/Types/index.ts b/src/Types/index.ts
index c0cfe6b..9def6ea 100644
--- a/src/Types/index.ts
+++ b/src/Types/index.ts
@@ -14,11 +14,15 @@ import { proto } from '../../WAProto'
 import { AuthenticationState } from './Auth'
 import { CommonSocketConfig } from './Socket'
 
+export type MessageRetryMap = { [msgId: string]: number }
+
 export type SocketConfig = CommonSocketConfig<AuthenticationState> & {
     /** provide a cache to store a user's device list */
     userDevicesCache?: NodeCache
-    /** map to store the retry counts for failed messages */
-    msgRetryCounterMap?: { [msgId: string]: number }
+    /**
+     * map to store the retry counts for failed messages;
+     * used to determine whether to retry a message or not */
+    msgRetryCounterMap?: MessageRetryMap
     /** width for link preview images */
     linkPreviewImageThumbnailWidth: number
     /**